Album Review: Attention Anyone – This Just In

By: Josh Parsons December 10, 2013

Admittedly, bands categorized under the pop-punk umbrella are not something I enjoy much anymore. Sure, Screeching Weasel and Green Day’s Dookie were an integral part of my preteen years, but I’ve outgrown my acne and eight hour Tony Hawk’s Underground marathons. Enter:Attention Anyone.

Hailing from Barrie, Attention Anyone make no bones about admitting that they’re trapped in the ‘90s. Their recent EP Release, This Just In, highlights their penchant for cookie-cutter, radio ready pop-punk. It’s loud, fast and filled with every gimmick in the book.

That being said, for a band who openly boast influences like Blink-182 and MXPX, I have heard hundreds of bands who do it much worse than these guys. The production is clean, but not overtly pristine; the mob-vocals perfectly out of tune, highlighted in tracks such as “90 Edgehill” and “Going Nowhere.”

This Just In is anthemic and youthful, capturing that idealized, stoned-era of our early high school years. The problem being, like so many similar bands, these guys seem to all be late twentysomethings and, at that age, lyrics like “I’m in over my head, I’m a self-destructive mess” carry no potency. I suspect they’re looking to cash in on the Warped Tour circuit, and they probably will.